Death's Door
by clumsydolphin
Summary: Few people know that there is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is empty save for one black door. Hermione and the rest of the Order of the Phoenix are about to find out just what that door does!


_**Death's Door**_

Hermione Granger was a broken young woman. She sat at the table in 12 Grimmauld Place and looked around at the Order of the Phoenix members that remained. More to point, the missing members they were all mourning.

They had lost a great number in the last year of the war with Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Neville Longbottom, Hannah Abbot, Lee Jordan, Katie Bell, the Weasley's had lost Ginny, Charlie, Arthur, and Percy just to name a few. Many, many more on Voldemort's side were killed by the order; one Hermione killed herself and it haunted her.

The worst loss for Hermione and part of the reason she was a shell of her former self though was that Ron had taken a killing curse aimed at her by Rodolphus Lestrange. Then worse still was after Voldemort was killed as she and Harry sat holding Ron's body and grieving Pansy Parkinson came up behind them and sent the same killing curse straight into Harry Potter's back.

In an hour's time she had lost both her best friends and brothers. She was on her feet in seconds and before Pansy could get away Hermione was on her. She didn't even register her wand as she beat the living shit out of the girl who killed Harry.

Bill Weasley had pulled her off Pansy as soon as he could but Hermione had enough time that Pansy spent a few days at the hospital before being taken to Azkaban to await trial for the murder she committed.

Nobody knew why Minerva McGonagall, who was the leader of the Order after the deaths of Dumbledore and Alastor Moody, called this meeting.

The woman Hermione had always looked up to got to her feet and called the meeting to order.

"I want to thank all of you for coming tonight especially as I know we are all trying to recover from the battle and grieve those precious loved ones lost." She began.

"That is the reason I called you all together actually. Some information was given to me that there is a room in the Department of Mysteries that will return to us some of those that were lost, it is called Death's Door."

Everyone gasped and started talking at once to the point that nobody could hear or understand each other due to the cacophony of noise they all made.

"Silence please! Just let me finish. The minister has generously contacted me to let me know that it was voted by the department's workers to allow our group to choose the five people to bring back." She finished a little sarcastically at the end.

"Why only five Professor and why do they want us to choose, it sounds fishy to me." Hermione asked. She had perked up considerably at the thought of Harry and Ron returning and the opportunity to maybe fix what she'd done wrong.

"I can only guess at the number but I believe that it is all the room will allow. As for us choosing, well I believe the new and improved ministry doesn't want to answer for those that aren't chosen; easier to lay the blame at our feet." She finished with a sigh.

"How in the world do we choose between all of the people we all lost?" Fred Weasley asked in an uncharacteristically somber voice.

"I think the one person that is obvious would be Harry Potter; after all he is the one who literally freed us from Voldemort. One we can be sure not to choose would be Albus; he wouldn't want to be brought back I can assure you as he's on his next great adventure." She said with a rather sad smile. "For the other four I thought we could draw straws and the winners choose one person each."

Molly Weasley cleared her throat sadly, "I want to be left out, I don't want to have to choose which of my children to bring back and which of the rest stay dead."

George reached his arm around his mum's shoulders comfortingly. The twins had moved back home to be there for her while she grieved her husband and children.

Fred managed to catch Hermione's eye and they shared a silent conversation that nobody seemed to understand but the two involved. Hermione figured he pitied her having to pick one person considering the broken condition she had been in.

After Molly's statement straws were passed around the table and the "winners" were chosen. Hermione of course drew one of the straws to choose but she didn't consider herself a winner; she had hoped to not have to pick out of all the people she'd lost and the wrong she'd committed.

The people choosing with Hermione were Bill, Oliver, and Fred.

"Why don't the four of us step into another room and wrap our minds around this decision we are faced with and discuss our options?" Bill suggested.

…

…

"Guys I need to say something to you before we begin if you don't mind." Hermione said once they had entered the library and put up silencing spells to assure privacy.

At their nods she continued. "Well especially to you Fred and Bill, I am entirely torn choosing between two deaths. One will make everyone happy and the other will right a wrong I did someone but make a whole lot of people very angry."

"'Mione, maybe it will help if you told us who are the two you are stuck on? I assume one of them is Ron correct?" Fred asked her.

"I don't want to say just yet who the second is because you will all be mad as well but yes Ron is one obviously." She answered with a frown.

"Well why don't we settle who Fred and Olly want to bring back and then we can deal with my choice and Hermione's." Bill suggested.

The names began to be put forth and the group went back and forth. They had decided that to relieve some of the guilty feelings for choosing who not to bring back that the person to bring back had to have a majority of 3 yes votes from the group.

For Oliver's choice it was settled on Katie Bell since everyone in the group knew she was the love of his life and Fred had chosen Ginny when Arthur only received one vote. The reason being that all of them knew Arthur would be upset to be chosen over his children.

Finally they made it around to Hermione and Bill.

"You go next 'Mione because I might be able to help you." Bill said.

"Well, obviously you all know Ron is as much my brother as yours so I want him back with all my heart. Also, Luna is lost without him and she lost both Ron and Xeno so I know how much having him back would mean to everyone and that pushes me to choose him, it's a choice a lot of people would be happy with."

The others nodded showing her their agreement.

"But there is a life that I took accidentally and I _**know **_he was innocent. It's the one and only time I ever used the killing curse which I aimed at Bellatrix Lestrange but as the spell left my wand I was bumped into and it hit the wrong person." She cried breaking down into hysterical sobs.

"I can't stop thinking of what I did!" Hermione got out between hiccoughs.

"I am stuck between Ronnie and Charlie, Hermione. What if I just choose Ron and we all agree that 'Mione can retrieve the death that's haunting her the most? It doesn't matter to me really who it is if an innocent life can be spared." Bill said to the group.

They all agreed and Hermione once again broke down while Bill and Fred put an arm around each of her shoulders in comfort.

"Who is the person you choose then 'Mione?"

…

…

**AN: So once again I find myself writing multiple stories at once so I ask for patience on updates. Also some of you will notice a few of my stories have gone away. I deleted a few based on the fact that they didn't do well with readers. **

**As for this story, I haven't decided whether Hermione's choice is Draco, Blaise, or Snape although I am leaning more towards Blaise. I know some of you will have picked up on the closeness of Fred and Hermione but is only ever going to be friends.**

**Let me know your choices between Hermione's picks and tune in to find out who she chooses!**


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